Jimmy's been taking our kids on Bear Hunts for thirteen years now. It starts off innocently enough. His inflection and cadence has hardly changed in all these years, making it so that they easily follow along with this all-familiar story. "Swishy swashy, swishy swashy, swishy swashy" always makes them laugh, "squelch squerch, squelch squerch, squelch squerch" comes with the faces you'd expect to make if it were you going through the thick, oozy mud, and, of course, the volume drops for "tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe-ing" through the dark cave. So with all of that committed so deeply in their memories, you'd think that Jimmy wouldn't still be able to get their hearts pounding as the lights go out and his voice and rhythm changes to a slow whisper, "One shiny wet nose! Two big, furry ears, two big, googly eyes.... IT'S A BEAR!!!" And then, every time, the current preschooler gets scared out of his mind and jumps into Jimmy's lap while the Bear Hunt family races to the safety of their bed. And then that preschooler asks to read it again. Every time.
